IR uses contractors and consultants to provide additional capacity to cover short-term demand or where specialist skills or independent external advice are needed.
A contractor is a person who is not considered an employee, providing extra capacity in a role that exists within IR, or acting as an additional resource for a time-limited piece of work.
A consultant is a person or supplier who is not considered a contractor or employee, engaged to perform a piece of work with a clearly defined scope and to provide expertise, in a particular field, not readily available within IR.
IR has elected to disclose contractors and consultants information separately in accordance with the Public Service Commission Te Kawa Mataaho (PSC) guidance:
| Expense | Actual 2023 ($000) | Actual 2024 ($000) |
|---|---|---|
| Contractors | $36,743 | $17,748 |
| Consultants | $5,000 | $9,437 |
| Total contractors and consultants–operating | $41,743 | $27,185 |
| Contractors and consultants–capital | $6,953 | $12,220 |
| Total contractors and consultants | $48,696 | $39,405 |
The difference between the amounts in the table above and the contractors and consultants expense in Note 4 is because the financial statement definitions vary slightly to PSC definitions. For example, fees paid to other government agencies are excluded for PSC purposes.
With the closure of the transformation programme, IR has reviewed its classification of contractors and consultants expenditure to ensure alignment with PSC definitions in a post-transformation environment. Updated classifications were effective from 1 July 2022.
The ratio of contractors and consultants operating expenditure to workforce operating spend was 6.2% in 2023–24 (10.3% in 2022–23).